Cape County Commission to spend $1.3M to heat, cool administration building

Cape Girardeau County government can no longer limp along with an aging, deteriorating heating and cooling system in its administration building in Jackson, commissioners say.

The county commission plans to spend $1.3 million to install a new heating and cooling system even as it continues to look to future construction of a new county administration building.

Commissioners said Thursday the heating and cooling system needs to be replaced now.

One of the building’s two boilers hasn’t worked all winter, said Second District Associate Commissioner Charles Herbst.

The cooling system is in danger of going out, too.

First District Associate Commissioner Paul Koeper said the whole mechanical system needs to be replaced, along with the emergency generator.

“The current generator is too small for what we have,” he said.

CTS Group, a St. Louis-based company that specializes in energy-efficiency projects, will do the work.

Koeper said the project should start this summer and hopefully be completed by the end of the year.

The decision to replace the heating and cooling system comes as major repairs are underway to the three-story building’s elevator.

That $98,000 project is expected to be completed before the end of June.

Both projects are essential to fixing up the former Coca-Cola bottling plant, officials said.

The county government bought the building in 1985 and subsequently renovated it inside and out for use as administrative offices.

Since 1987, when Cape Girardeau County government officially moved in, nearly all county offices have been housed in the building across from the courthouse.

The improvements will do more than benefit employees and visitors to the building.

Those improvements also will make it easier to sell the building in the future, Presiding Commissioner Clint Tracy said.

County officials said no one would want to buy an aging office building with a broken-down elevator and an unreliable heating and cooling system.

Koeper said a new county administration building may not be erected and opened for another five years.

“Five years down the road is a long time,” he said. A new facility has yet to be designed. “We don’t have a finger on the exact cost of the project.”

Once a new office building is constructed, the commission plans to sell the existing administration building.

Just two years ago, county officials considered the possibility the current administration building would be razed to allow U.S. 61 to be reconfigured to run diagonally through the site. But highway plans changed with final approval of a design for a roundabout.

The city of Jackson and the Missouri Department of Transportation began work on construction of the roundabout Tuesday. The roundabout will replace a four-way stop at East Main Street and U.S. 61, just south of the administration building.

The construction project has forced the closing of several streets near the courthouse and the administration building.

All that construction work has led commissioners to decide against replacing the heating and cooling system in the courthouse right now.

Koeper said the courthouse’s system needs to be replaced. The boiler in the building is 50 or 60 years old, he said.

But Koeper said replacing the heating and cooling system in the administration building is the first priority.

“We had major problems last year with the air conditioning,” he said.

The heating and cooling system in the courthouse will have to be replaced in the future at a cost of about $1.4 million, Koeper said.

Koeper said the county commission wants to see how the work goes in the administration building before proceeding with a similar project in the courthouse.

Commissioners are scheduled to meet with CTS representatives next week to discuss project plans.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641

Pertinent address:

1 Barton Square, Jackson, Mo.